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MESSAGE TRANSCRIPTS Message Transcripts 2025

Title: Prayer

Series: See to it

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I want to continue sharing with you on ‘See to it’. We have been looking at the instructions given to us in Hebrews, chapters 3 and 12 on seeing to it that none of us develops a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. That means it is our duty, individually and collectively, to watch over one another and see to it that we do not go astray. And that has led us to looking at various things we must pay attention to, while attempting to watch over one another.

Now the last thing I want to bring to us on this has to do with praying for one another. See, it does not matter how diligent we are in watching over one another, in counselling one another and in following up one another, so that we do not fall away from the grace of God, without supporting ourselves with prayer, we may still find some or even many among us falling away. This is why we have Scriptures in which we are given instructions about praying for one another in order to remaining in the faith.

For instance, Paul says this in Ephesians, chapter 6, from verse 18:“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” (Ephesians 6:18NIV)

First, our instruction here is to pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. Then we are told to be vigilant and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. So, we have an instruction here, which is to always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. Observe that we are not told in this bible text to always keep on praying for ourselves. Of course, we are to keep on praying for ourselves. But our instruction here is to always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

Now, as a person, I take that very seriously. I pray for all the Lord’s people. I do not need to know all the Lord’s people that are here on earth. But I can pray for them based on the regions of the world in which they are living, based on their sex, based on age, based on their professions and so for. And think about this: since are told to pray for all the Lord’s people, we will not be expected to do anything less in praying for those that we are together in our local assemblies. So, we must be praying for all those that we are together in our local assemblies.

Remember that this is God’s command to us. If you, then, have not been praying for members of your assembly and for all the Lord’s people, you are sinning against Him – you are disobeying a clear command from Him. This is not a suggestion to us. This is a command from Him to us. So, we must take obeying it very seriously.

What sort of prayers, then, are we to be offering for our brethren and all the people of the Lord? We are to be offering for them all kinds of prayers. Any kind of prayer that is good for you is good for all the Lord’s people. Any kind of prayer that is good for you is good for your brethren as well. So, do not tell me that you do not know what sort of prayers you are to be offering for your brethren. That is because you can offer for them whatever prayer you offer for yourself.

However, for the purpose of these teachings, we are being specific about the sort of prayer we are to be offering for our brethren. We are considering prayers that will enable them to remain true to God and not fall away from the faith, irrespective of the trials of life that they may be confronted.

For example, in Colossians, chapter 4, from verse 12, Paul says this about a ministry companion of his and his devotion to praying for the brethren in Colossae:“Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis.” (Colossians 4:12-13NIV)

This is a very good example of what God expects us to be doing for our brethren, where it concerns prayer. Paul says, “Epaphras, who is one of you…” So, this man was a member of that church. In fact, in chapter 1 of this letter, Paul makes it clear to us that it was this man that God used in starting the church in Colossae. He was the one that preached to be people there and led them to the Lord Jesus Christ. That was how a church started there.

Now Paul, at the time that he wrote this letter, wanted the brethren to know that this man, Epaphras, was devoted to praying for them, even though he was not with them at the time. Paul refers to what he was doing for these brethren as hard work. So, prayer is hard work. If you have been devoted to prayer, you will know that it is hard work. I know that it is hard work.Well, Epaphras was devoted to praying for the brethren in Colossae, Laodicea and Hierapolis. And he was praying like these for all these brethren because he identified with them – he was one of them. If you too identify with your brethren, if you take them as your family, you will be devoted to praying for them. Yes, all of us have a duty to pray for all the Lord’s people around the world.

But more importantly, we have a duty to be praying for the brethren that we are directly fellowshipping together. Epaphras saw it as his duty to be praying for the Colossian-brethren. And he was very devoted to it. In fact, Paul refers to his approach in praying for them as a wrestle. He says he is wrestling in prayer for them. Why? The reason is that they may stand firm in the will of God, mature and fully assured. Think about that. This man wants these brethren to stand firm in all the will of God, regardless of what they are confronted with in life.People are confronted with all kind of trials and challenges in life.

All of us are confronted with all kinds of trials and challenges of life. And we may not be able to share everything that is coming our way. But if we have someone that is praying for us that we may stand firm in all the will of God, we may not be able to tell to what extent that will help us.There are Christians today that are fighting for their souls in their offices, schools, neighbourhoods and so forth. That is because they are probably living in Sodom and are being tormented everyday by the evil of those around them. And now their faith is shaking and they need our spiritual support.

Unfortunately, many of us are too self-occupied. Because we are self-occupied, we don’t even spend time praying for ourselves, not to talk of praying for others. But your brother may urgently need your prayer. That sister of yours may urgently need your prayer. And God is counting on you to pray for them. So, if a brother or a sister should fall because of your negligence in praying for them, God is going to hold you accountable.

This, of course, is one of the reasons our Lord Jesus says that many who are first will be last. See, many that we are looking up to in the church as pillars may not after all be what we think they are, when we stand before the Lord. And that may be because they have been negligent in handling their duties in various areas. We too may have been negligent in handling our duties in various ways. And one of those areas in which many of us are negligent in our spiritual duties is that of praying for our brethren. (Cf. Matthew 19:30; Mark 10:31)

Now we think it is the so-called prayer warriors that should be praying for all of us. But from what we see in Ephesians 6:18, the duty of prayer is not reserved for any group or class of people in the church; it is for all of us. Yes, our leaders must be at the fore in prayer matters, as the apostles of old said. The apostles of old said that the leaders must give themselves to the ministry of the word of God and prayer. That means they must always take the lead in prayer matters, especially praying for their brethren. (Cf. Acts 6:3)

Nonetheless, every one of us must give himself to prayer. Jesus says, “People ought to always pray and not give up.” He does not say, “Pastors or preachers ought to always pray and not give up.” And in Ephesians 6:18, as I pointed out already, Paul says, “Always pray for all the Lord’s people.” This instruction is given to all members of the body of Christ, not to our leaders alone. And all of us must take it seriously.

Well, my point is that all of us need one another’s prayer support. That is because none of us is exempted from life’s challenges. Even our Lord Jesus Christ was not exempted from life’s challenges. So, towards the end of His life here on earth He had to give Himself to earnest praying.

Why did He have to do that? It was because He was confronted with a situation in which He needed all the grace of God that He could get to walk in victory.Now the Lord, at that time, did take some of His disciples along with Him to pray. But they could not give Him any prayer support. He had told them to pray for themselves. But they would not do so. How, then, could they give Him any prayer support? He Himself knew that He could not expect any prayer support from them.

If they had supported Him with their prayers in that situation, who knows how that may have made His cross easier to carry? But He could not rely on them for any prayer support. And you too may not be able to rely on anyone around you for prayer support. But it is the duty of each of us to be praying for one another, so that we all will stand firm in all the will of God for our lives, mature and fully assured.

Do we really want to stand firm in all the will of God? Do we want to come to maturing in the things of God? Do we want full assurance of faith in our hearts? Then we must be praying for one another. I must be praying for you. You too must be praying for me. A lot of times, we are quick judge brethren who fall short of the grace of God. But did we take our prayer duty to them very seriously? How much time did we spend in praying for those who fell among us before they fell? If we had been praying for them, they probably would not have fallen the way they did. So, don’t be quick to judge anybody.

Yes, you may see Christians that have turned away from God and are living useless and irresponsible lives. But have you been praying for them, praying for all the Lord’s people, that they may stand firm in all the will of God, regardless of the temptations or challenges or even opportunities they may come in contact with? Have you been praying for them, regardless of the persecutions and hostility they are faced with, regardless of the torment of their souls?There are Christians that are living on the edge, where they are continually exposed to danger or death because of their faith.

And some of these people may become tired or weary because of the intensity of what they are going through. If care is not taken, they may fall away or slip back into their former way of life. There have been those who slipped back into their former religions because the hostility they faced, having become Christians, was too much for them to handle.Therefore, we must learn to pray for one another. And we see a clear example of this in the text I shared with us from Colossians 4 about Epaphras and his devotion to praying for the people of God.

We too must be given to praying for our brethren like that, so that they may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. Furthermore, the Lord gives us some other specific prayers we are to be offering for ourselves and for our brethren. Look at how Luke puts it:“Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21:36NIV)

First, we are told by the Lord here to always be on the watch. In other words, we must not allow ourselves to get carried away by the things happening around us. Then He goes on to command us to pray. About what? He tells us to pray that we may be able to escape all that is about to happen and that we may be able to stand before the Son of Man.

See, in these last days, wickedness will increase, as we are warned by the Lord Jesus Christ. And these will cause the love of many people to grow cold. So, because of the things we are going to be exposed to in our world, because of the intensity of wickedness that we are going to be exposed to wherever we turn, our faith will put to the utmost test. And the only way for us to escape is for God Himself to save us. Our salvation from the corruption and evils of these last days is beyond our desire or effort. We need all the mercy of God we can get to be saved. So, we are told to pray to Him that we may be able to escape all that will be happening in these last days and that we will be able to stand blameless when our Lord Jesus returns. (Cf. Matthew 24:12; Romans 9:16)

I personally take the offering of this prayer very seriously. I offer it for myself. I offer it for my family. I offer it for all of you here in this assembly. And I offer it for all God’s people. You too should be offering it for yourself and for all the people of God. Well, you can see that we have sufficient instructions in Scriptures on what sort of prayers to offer for ourselves so that we do not fall away but stand firm in all the will of God. So, you cannot claim to be ignorant in this matter.

Yes, we are to be involved in one another’s life, so that we will know how to properly guide, support and counsel ourselves. But all of that may go to waste, if we will not be devoted to praying for one another. You may have been in situations in which you counselled certain people of God and your counsel fell on deaf ears. Yes, you knew that they were going in a wrong direction. You knew that they would ultimately hurt themselves, if they continued in the path they were following.

Yet you could not get them to see the light through your counsel. Now what do we do in such situations? Do we put more and more pressure on such individuals to do what is right? No! We cannot help people beyond what they permit. But we can pray for them. We can take charge of their souls in the realm of the spirit by offering prayers for them.In Luke, chapter 22, from verse 31, he tells us this about the prayer of Jesus for His disciples:“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:31-32NIV)

Jesus, here, is telling His disciples that Satan has already asked to sift all of them as wheat, that is, to mess them up. Think about that. Just as Satan got permission to mess Job up, he also got permission from God to mess up the Lord’s disciples. And what did Jesus do when He learnt of this? He prayed for them. Yes, He had been feeding them with the word of God. But He also knew that feeding them with the word of God would not be sufficient on that occasion – they would need the mercy of God to escape.

So, He prayed for them that their faith may not fail. We too can offer this prayer for ourselves, prayer that our faith will not fail, regardless of what Satan may throw at us. In fact, we should be offering it for ourselves and for all our brethren. We may not know what sort of permission Satan has obtained against our brethren, to pull them down in their neighbourhoods, workplaces, schools, marriages or even Christian assemblies. And there are times that God may reveal such things to us, as He did in the case of the Lord’s disciples.

But whether He reveals Satan’s schemes against our brethren to us or not, we must be praying for our brethren that their faith may not fail.What I mean is that we do not need to wait for any divine revelation before we begin to pray for our brethren. We have already been told in the Scriptures to be doing so. So, we are to take it upon ourselves to pray for our brethren that their faith will not fail, regardless of where they are and what Satan may be doing to pull them down.Now praying like this for our brethren does not mean that they may not stumble or fall at all. They may still stumble or fall, even though we are praying for them. Jesus prayed for His disciples that their faith may not fail. Yet they all ran away from Him when He was arrested and taken away to be crucified. But because He had prayed for them, God was able to restore them. So, there are times that our prayers may not keep our brethren from falling.

But our prayers may assure their restoration. Let us, then, learn to pray for one another, so that none of us will develop a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God or fall short of His grace. My prayer is that the Spirit of God will daily strengthen us to take these instructions very seriously. Amen.

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MESSAGE TRANSCRIPTS Message Transcripts 2025 Single Message Series

SEE TO IT (8)BOUNDARIES TO RESPECT (A)

Date: May 04, 2025

Series: See to it

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We have been looking at a number of things on the relevance of taking certain instructions given to us in Hebrews, chapters 3 and 12, very seriously. These instructions have to do with watching over one another, so that we do not go astray or fall short of the grace of God. This, of course, has led us to looking at various things that we need to pay attention to, if we will be able to freely help one another stay in the truth and not become a part of the problem we are trying to prevent or solve. And the last thing we looked at on this note had to do with relating to one another only on the basis of the word of God, not on the basis of human traditions or superstitions, not on the basis of mysticism and not on the basis of our feelings, idiosyncrasies or experiences.

Our traditions may be good. And our experiences may be okay to teach others. But we must use these things in relating to people only to the degree that they agree with the word of God. Wherever they do not agree with the word of God, we must discard them in our dealings with people. Otherwise, we may end up judging those that God has not judged or condemning those that He has not condemned.Now there is another thing we need to pay attention to in relating to one another, if we will be able to truly watch over one another and keep ourselves from going astray. This has to do with recognizing those boundaries that we must not cross in people’s lives. There are boundaries we must not cross in our dealings with people. These boundaries may not be obvious. But they are there. And in relating to people, we must recognize and respect them. Otherwise, we may not be able to help them in any serious way or end up becoming a part of the problem we are trying to prevent or solve.

One of such boundaries is people’s right to privacy. The Lord Jesus has called us to live in freedom. So, we must allow every child of God to enjoy their freedom, as long as they are not using it as cover up for evil (Galatians 5:13; 1Peter 2:16). The point I am making is that we can only help people to do degree that they permit us. So, we must know when and where people want us in their lives and when and where they do not want us in their lives. We must not attempt to impose ourselves on anyone. We must not be close to people beyond want they want or what they permit. If someone has set certain boundaries in their lives that they do not want you to cross, then, you must respect their right to privacy.

In 2Corinthians, chapter 6, Paul says this from verse 11: “We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. As a fair exchange – I speak as to my children – open wide your hearts also.” (2Corinthians 6:11-13NIV)Paul is counseling the Corinthian brethren here to remove the boundaries they have placed around their lives, so that he and his ministry companions could freely affect them.

According to him, they are not withholding their affection from these Corinthians. Instead, they have freely opened wide their hearts to them, so that they could share their lives with them. So, it is only fair that the Corinthians do likewise. And that is what Paul is placing his fingers on here. But you can see that Paul is not trying to impose himself on these brethren. Yes, he was the one that God used in starting their church. And he had spiritual authority over them and could command them to do those things that are right for them to do. Yet he would not impose himself on them.

Instead, he wanted them to realize the need for them to consciously open wide their hearts to them, so that they may freely and fully affect them in their walk of faith. And that was because he respected their right to privacy.In like manner, it is important that we respect people’s right to privacy. It is important that we respect their right and freedom to choose what they want and do not want, to choose how we help them and the extent to which we help them in their faith. So, if someone does not want us to help them in certain areas of their lives, we have to respect their decision and stay away from those areas of their lives that they do not want us to touch.

Yes, we may know exactly what they need in those areas of their lives. But if they will not permit us to help them, we will have to let them be until God opens their eyes to see that they need us to help them in those areas of their lives.Look at how Paul relates to Philemon in his letter, as an example of the need for us to learn to respect the rights of others to make certain decisions for themselves: “Therefore, although in Christ I could be bold and order you to do what you ought to do, yet I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love. It is as none other than Paul – an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus – that I appeal to you for my son Onesimus, who became my son while I was in chains. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he has become useful both to you and to me. I am sending him – who is my very heart – back to you. I would have liked to keep him with me so that he could take your place in helping me while I am in chains for the gospel.

But I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that any favor you do would not seem forced but would be voluntary.” (Philemon 8-14NIV)The things Paul says here are in favour of a man called Onesimus, who used to be a slave of Philemon. The man ran away from his master and was meant to be severely punished for doing so. But as God would have it, he met Paul at some point and become born again. Not only did he become born again, he also grew in his faith so much so that he became a very dear son in the faith to Paul. Naturally, Paul would want to keep this young man to himself. But he knew it would not be right for him to do so, since he knew his master, Philemon. The right thing for him to do would be to send him back to his master for reconciliation. Yes, he could just write a letter to his master, using his spiritual authority over him to command him to let Onesimus remain with him. But he knew that would be an abuse of his spiritual authority and his relationship with Philemon. He knew that if he did that, he would be trampling on the man’s rights.

So, he would not do so but would instead appeal to the love of Christ in Philemon. And that is what we see in this passage.Now is it the will of God for people to keep slaves? No! But during that era, God did not contend with humanity about making slaves of themselves, though He forbade His own people, the Israelites, from making slaves of their own brethren. Why did God not contend with people on this matter? The reason was the hardness of their hearts. God knew that unless people were recreated and changed from within, telling them not to make slaves of themselves could only fall on deaf ears. But as the gospel prevailed in the world, slavery diminished in acceptance.

And today, slavery is no longer socially or politically acceptable in any part of the world.In any case, at that time, there was no law against having slaves. So, Paul would not trample on Philemon’s right to own slaves. But since Philemon was a child of God, he appealed to the love of God in him in dealing with Onesimus, his run-away slave. As I pointed out already, Paul could have commanded this man to forgive Philemon and to also release him to him as a helper. But he respected his right and wanted him to function on the basis of the love of God in his heart. So, he appealed to him to welcome back Onesimus and reconcile with him, out of love for Christ. That way, all of them could continue to freely fellowship together as members of the same family, the family of God.You can see that even though Paul was an apostle, he respected the right of Philemon to make his own decision about the matter of Onesimus.

We too should learn to respect people’s rights to make decisions about their lives. We should not treat them as morons and keep trampling on their rights to decide for themselves, just because we have spiritual authority over them. Instead, we should respect their freedom to make choices that they believe are right for them. And we should respect their right to privacy.Yes, we may know what is right for others to do in certain situations of their lives. But we must still respect their rights to choose what to do for themselves. We can encourage them. We can warn them. We can open their eyes to see the will of God for them. But as long as they have come of age, we must learn to respect their right to choose for themselves whatever they want in life. That way, they will not do anything because they are forced or manipulated or threatened to do it but because they want to do it.

What I am saying, all along, is that if someone does not want us to help them in certain areas in their walk with God, we just have to let them be. We see our Lord Jesus dealing with us in this same manner. He does not cross whatever boundaries we set for Him in our lives. Look at what is written to us in the bible about this: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” (Revelation 3:20NIV)The Lord is not speaking to unbelievers here but to believers.

Interestingly, often, this Scripture is used to address unbelievers to give Jesus a chance in their lives. And that is not a bad thing. But in the context, the words were originally said to believers and not to unbelievers. These believers were shutting the Lord Jesus out of certain areas of their lives. So, He had to tell them to open the door for Him to come into those areas of their lives and fellowship with them there.Well, He is saying the same thing to us today. He is telling us to allow Him in every area of our lives. Yes, He lives in us by His Spirit. But He may be living in us as guest, a visitor. There are, in fact, many believers who think of the Spirit of God as a guest in their lives.

They do not see Him as the owner of their lives. But He is the owner of our lives. And we must treat Him as such.However, He will not force Himself on us. So, the right thing for us to do is to willingly offer ourselves to Him. The word God tells us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God, holy and acceptable, which is our logical act of worship.

In other words, the willing offering of our bodies to God is the right thing for us to do. We have to realize that it is the right thing for us to do and do it.Well, we see Jesus telling the brethren in Laodicea that He is standing at the door and knocking and that if anyone hears His voice and opens the door, He will come in and fellowship with that person and they with Him. But what if the person does not hear the Lord knocking at all? He won’t force His way in. Instead, He will keep knocking until the person hears and opens the door. Or what if the person hears and does not open the door for the Lord? He won’t still force His way in.

He will just let the person be until he realizes the need for him to open the door for his Lord to come in and fellowship with him.So, if you do not want the Lord to address you about your marriage, for instance, He will let you be. But you can be sure that you will be a failure in that area of your life. If you don’t want Him to address you about your finances, He will let you be. Or if you are stingy and selfish and do not want Him to talk about these things, what is He going to do? He will let you be. Even if it is your health that you don’t want Him to touch, He will let you be. He will not force Himself on you. If He had been forcing Himself on all men, then, all men would have been born again already.Truly, the Lord wants to fellowship with us in every area of our lives. He does not want us to live alone in any area of our lives. That, in fact, is what God has called us to. He has called us into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ (1Corinthians 1:9).

He has called us to live with Him and for Him to live with us. He does not want us to walk through life alone. Instead, He wants us to have His companionship every moment of our lives.However, we may not have His companionship every moment of our lives. That, of course, will not be because it is unavailable. Rather, it will be because we are not permitting Him in our lives. That is how the Lord functions. That is how we also must function. We must learn to knock the door of people’s lives instead of badging in. Jesus knocks before coming into any area of our lives.

Why does He do that? That is respect. He is showing that He respects our rights to choose for ourselves. He may not respect us for the choices we have made. But He respects our right to choose whatever we want to choose for ourselves. We may choose badly. We may choose what will destroy us. But since He has given us the right to making choices for ourselves in certain areas of life, He knows that He has to respect our right to make those choices.Just think about this: God has given us the right to make our own choices in certain areas of our lives. We, of course, do not have absolute rights to choose in life. There are things that are chosen for us by God or by people. But there are areas of life in which we have been given the right to choose for ourselves. And God is not taking that right away from us. He is not trampling on it at all. He will always respect it. He will not contend with us in using it. But He is always concerned that we choose right.

How painful it must have been for Him, then, to watch us use the right He has given to us to hurt ourselves and others badly? Well, God will continue to come to us, asking us to open the door of every area of our lives for Him, so that He can come in and lead us to choose right. He will show us what is right and what is wrong and tell us to choose what is right. He will show us the difference between life and death and also show us to choose life. He will show us the difference between health and death, between wealth and poverty, and also lead us to choose that which is right for us. In like manner, as I have been saying, we must respect people’s privacy and also their right to choose whatever they want for themselves. It may hurt us badly that people are making the wrong choices.

But we still have to respect their right to choose for themselves, if they will not permit us to help them choose right. A man once told me that he had resolved to maintain a private life and to shut those of us who were his brethren out of his home. And I told him right there that I would respect his choice, even though I knew it was a terrible one. I also went on to inform the brethren to respect his privacy and not visit him uninvited. Now was I happy to do that? No! But that’s what the Lord Himself would do.

So, if people do not want you to help them in certain areas of their lives, you have to let them be. That way, neither they nor God will be able to hold you responsible, if they should fall away from the grace of God. Let us pray.